Atheist Nexus

ORIGINS: UNIVERSE, LIFE, HUMANKIND, AND DARWIN

We debate origins of the Universe, life, Earth, humans, religion, atheism, using common sense, evolution, cosmology, geology, archaeology, and other sciences, to repel biblical creationism and other religious beliefs.

Go Team! One for the Atheist Brigade! Powered by good sense, refusing to be a victim, standing up for ourselves and each other, strong, decisive, clear, specific, a backbone of steel and arms of velvet, confident, competent, and compassionate!

Madhukar, I have been reading your writings and I highly recommend them for a good solid background on atheism and its roots. Your quotes accurately reflect the authors' intent, and your organization makes reading flow ... indeed you are creating a "page turner".

Science writer Matt Ridley and Douglas Kenrick, worry that reproductive patterns favor greater population growth among those “…who harness the human capacity for superstition and panic.” In essence, the dumb, who can’t reason as well, are outbreeding the smart, threatening “…the triumph of faith over reason.”http://bigthink.com/risk-reason-and-reality/edge-big-thinkers-miss-...

Its premise is over-exaggerated, even if it wasn't horribly flawed. And its premise is simplistic and flawed, in its treatment of the factors that contribute to intelligence.

You can translate the metaphor into other areas, though.

A more serious issue is the spread of memes, with nut-jobs like the Duggars pumping out 19 kids and passing on their fucked-up, fundie-Christian memes to their children. On our side, we have people like TNT666 not having any children, when I think she'd do a much better job of raising contributing members of society, were she so inclined.

The bright point in that is that we're siphoning off members of the religious community, into our number. The internet and the increased spread of scientific information is helping with that. We've got almost no attrition due to children from secular families becoming religious, later in life, since religiosity requires childhood indoctrination, which they're not getting.

Hell, we've got at least one of the Phelps clan who's gone secular, so maybe we can pick off a couple of the Duggar children, if they ever receive sufficient outside education ... although, I admit that's doubtful, considering that they're all home-schooled.

All that aside, Idiocracy is a fairly amusing movie. I wouldn't put it on any list of greats, but it's worth watching.

Yeah, my wife says we are "animated stardust". It's one thing to make up stories about how we came to be, but to try to pass off them as true is just wrong. And it's worse to make laws and public policy based on those stories.

And OI see no reason to remain silent about playing "Let's Pretend" when it comes to the origins of the universe and the beginning of life. Some say respect the believer even as we disrespect the beliefs. I am not able to compartmentalize that way. I know the grief believers put me through when I first expressed doubts and then renounced the existence of god and the spirit world.

There is certainly no doubt that our existence is not attributable to a god. However, in my opinion, being in awe of the physics to which it is attributable would be almost as bad as worshiping. Remember, nature is indiscriminately ruthless. It would sacrifice good as much as anything. Accordingly, I don't care to honor it. I think our perspective should be to understand it, not only to satisfy our curiosity, but to render it harmless against us.

Armadillo, modern, The giant armadillo grows up to 59 in. and weighs up to 130 lb, while the pink fairy armadillos are diminutive species, with an overall length of 5 to 6 in. All species are native to the Americas, where they inhabit a variety of environments.

Notice the very narrow line at 2 Ma: were the first hominoids. Humans have been on this Earth for such a short period of time, there have been many extinctions, and the only constant is change. This beautiful planet is our home.

Thank you for the invitation to join this group. I am so happy to have found this page! I was reading Atheism for Dummies, and they had a link to this page, which is how I found you. Anyway, thanks again for the invite!:-)

Notice the Arctic, Asia, and Australia have very high temperature rises.

"A comprehensive new analysis of temperature changes over the continents through 2,000 years has found that a long slide in temperatures in most regions preceded the unusual global warming of recent decades, but with a lot of regional variability and other fascinating details. A National Science Foundation news release has ample background."

Carolyn Porco, Planetary scientist shows images from the Cassini voyage to Saturn, focusing on its largest moon, Titan, and on frozen Enceladus, which seems to shoot jets of ice. The leader of the Imaging Team on the Cassini mission to Saturn, she interprets and shares the pictures coming back from this fascinating planet, its rings and its moons.

I am so grateful that science refused to be subdued by religion. My life with breast cancer has so much more meaning with science and the options it offers me than faith in delusions could ever have. My team of medical professionals and my team of emotional supporters have something to offer that is real and does not depend on denial of reality.
Thank you, all my atheist professionals and friends who do more than rub their hands together and make verbal noises; just so much babel in a sea of platitudes signifying nothing.
Why Evolution is True and Why Many People Still Don't Believe It (Jerry Coyne, 2012)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW9G2YVtBYc&list=WL3DB291F0C3DC9DC9